Plenty NYC Reviews and Tickets
Show-Score Member Reviews (153)
See it if You enjoy great acting--this is definitely a great show to see Rachel Weise and Corey Stoll. Innovative set, beautiful imagery.
Don't see it if You don't really enjoy older, somewhat dated pieces. The script is old fashioned, and a bit confusing at times. It jumps around a lot.
See it if A topic such as women after World War II interests you. Was surprised. I enjoyed it.
Don't see it if You're easily bored. It's a long play.
See it if Rachel Weisz and Corey Stoll.
Don't see it if Looking for something better.
See it if enjoy class related dramas about British Society and a mad woman that desperately needs to fit in.
Don't see it if you are easily confused by time shifts, British slang and quirky drama
See it if you enjoy stories about people lost and found and of individuals spending their lives trying to find their path
Don't see it if do not like subjects like war and mental health
See it if Not sure. Good cast liked the acting but story wasn't clear for someone not familiar with it.
Don't see it if If there is something else u want to see
See it if Interested in the post-WW2 time-period, politics
Don't see it if Seeing both great and average performances won't outweigh the possible occasional boredom of a long play
See it if You like British dramas about the demise of Britain! Excllent play that is hampered by bad direction and staging. Weisz is just good.
Don't see it if You remember the original production with the thrilling Kate Nelligan. The play appears dated and the horrible set doesn't help.
Critic Reviews (37)
"Every so often a play comes along that defines an era. Such is the case with 'Plenty,' David Hare’s landmark 1978 drama about post World War II England now being given a clear-eyed revival at the Public that is both moving and haunting in its retrospective insights...Under David Leveaux’s economic, restrained direction, the uniformly excellent cast shines. Rachel Weisz gives a deeply affecting performance in a role that matches Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler in its complexity."
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"At first, we may be frustrated by the underlying disconnection the actors sustain...But as the story unfolds, we see that the chill that runs through it is a comment on the effects of war itself...After the devastation, we have to rebuild, reconnect, empathize, make friends with the enemy while only looking forward because the past is too painful...To an insane human being, the adjustment is utterly impossible...'Plenty' is crazy beauty in these ashes. Go see it."
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"This dense play, exquisitely directed by Leveaux with precision and style, is still a struggle to unlock...Susan’s slow mental deterioration, brilliantly portrayed by the exceptional Rachel Weisz, mirrors the British post-war disillusionment and depression, and is as exciting as it is devastating...'Plenty' challenges us to lean in and play close attention as it bounces around the '40’s, '50s and '60s. But as we put the puzzle pieces together, we begin to all feel the weight of Susan’s story."
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"'Plenty’s' intrigue and characters are indissociable from their context...Weisz is left to fill in the emotional void but her Susan Traherne borders on the hysterical, gasping between lines barked in strident tones and barreling across the stage in fits of pique. Worse, she never makes us feel what her dilemma, or her fight, really is...Suez is 'Plenty’s' Waterloo...But as forgotten as it is for American audiences, it makes a neatly appropriate allusion for this forgettable production."
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"Of all the crazed, destructive, female characters that the stage has given us, Susan Traherne may be among the least interesting, at least as performed by Rachel Weisz...'Plenty' is far more oblique and disjointed than some of Hare’s other work; the scenes feel like shorthand, and are not all in chronological order...'Plenty' features a beautiful movie star, foul language, guns and gunshots, actual smoking, even both male and female nudity, and still ends up feeling dull."
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"Because the play works on so many levels and delights in so many ambiguities, it requires a firm sense of place and time and purpose, which David Leveaux’s revival does not offer...One place seems very much like another, one conflict too much like the next...As Susan, Weisz has some big heels to fill...She sometimes strains for effect...But hers is a high-voltage performance, pulsating with alternating currents, flashing against the bleakness of Susan’s world."
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"Weisz, who is normally so warm and empathetic, is so chilly you can feel the frost. We never bond with her and this character that lives for herself is hard to like, let alone love...Told in jumbled pieces like her mind, the play does not follow a strict timeline, weaving back and forth. In the hands of David Leveaux, the show becomes even more confusing, stark and long...Weisz loses this round. We never feel for her so the last scene seems pointless."
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“Hare’s drama doesn’t play as well as memory serves. At least in this revival. Susan remains a complex portrait, as does her doomed marriage, but beyond that small orbit of two people, the other characters often register as mere devices…And there are bigger disappointments. Minor characters are often ridiculed for no good purpose other than to induce easy laughs…If Brexit didn’t already make it clear, Britain’s superiority complex and xenophobia survived the Suez Canal crisis very much intact.”
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